Since emotionally disturbed children typically have difficulty in establishing and maintaining close relationships, the experiments proposed in this application are designed to shed light on the functioning of social conflicts in children's friendships. The studies have two major objectives: a) to compare conflict behaviors of children who are friends with those of children who are not friends, and b) to compare the role of conflict elicitation and management among children who are socially rejected (a group which is known to be at risk in social and emotional development) with those who are socially accepted. Another objective is to examine age differences in the circumstances eliciting conflict, in resolution strategies, and in conflict outcomes since these issues have received little attention. The children to be studied will be between 8 and 12 years of age since this is an especially important time in the development of friendships. Conflicts are expected to decrease with age between friends as compared to nonfriends, to be qualitatively different between friends and between nonfriends, and to be atypical in the social interactions of rejected children as compared to both popular and so-called neglected children. Six studies will be conducted: One experiment will contrast the interaction of friends and nonfriends on the school playground, and two will contrast friends and nonfriends in ad hoc groups (dyads and triads) in which conflict will be programmed to occur over resources an social rules. One investigation will explore the relation between qualitative aspects of conflict management and friendship maintenance over time. Finally, two studies will compare conflict and conflict management in the interactions of socially rejected, neglected, and accepted children, using naturalistic and structured settings, respectively. Since children with behavior disorders are known to have few friends, less contact with them, and less mature understanding of friendships than other children, and since peer difficulties in childhood are predictive of poor adult outcomes, these studies have important implications for several aspects of developmental psychopathology.
